Doll makeover, restoration - kind of!

Remember this doll I was repairing?  Never having done anything like it before, and only the head to work with, I began.  I sent away for an air brush & compressor kit, which got lost in the post and had to get a new one sent out!  Then had to earn how to use it, how to mix the paint - I used acrylic because that's all I had - and keep it from clogging up the nozzle - used pantihose to strain it!  Utube for some quick lessons!

All over skin colour to develop a base. The original was quite dark, but my paint colour made it look deathly!  Didn't get pics of that!  LOL!  Then sometime after midnight and several additions of most of my tube of white, it came right!  I was matching it to the velour colour.  Still not perfect.  A million coats of spray - if you can't get the right colour!  I used a hair dryer alternately with the airbrush, as each layer needed to be dry to check the colour.

The hair ended up being lighter than the original because I had such a limited pallet.  I mucked up the front, but decided it would just have to do rather than fiddle with it and make it worse - it's not a competition and is the reason I make cloth dolls!  I also mucked up the lip shape - probably used the wrong brush!  I was pleased with the colour though.

The eyes!  Oh the eyes!  Tricky and time consuming and not for the faint-hearted! Undercoat of  white to cover the original, then they got stuck and had to release them!  These eyes looked so stary, and it took a lot of thinking and study to get them right.  (Cloth dolls are so much easier!)  Eventually, I worked out that I needed to darken the eyes and make the pupils larger.  The iris had to cover most of the eye, as it was in the original, to make it look effective.

Then I made the dress, with little knickers, socks to match the dress and shoes.  I had to make a last of clay to make good shoes.  Not perfect, but better than nothing.

I used Kezi Mathews Toddler Doll pattern for the body.  It was just the right size and and a perfect shape!

I am relatively pleased with the way she turned out and I just hope her owner will not mind that she has changed colour, as all she possessed of this doll was the broken head,left over from her childhood nearly 70 years ago!  She wanted to pass something on to her granddaughter.  I hope I have created something she will be happy with.